The Crazy Lawson Tribe

Like every week day morning, I eat breakfast and start getting all of my things together as I prepare to head to my language class. I grab my phone while walking out the door and I notice there is a new message. I open it to see that it’s from the owner of my language school; Fa’s grandmother has been admitted to the hospital and class is cancelled for the day. I immediately hear the Lord say, “It’s ok Chris. This is part of my purpose. Send Fa a message and tell her that everything will be ok. I will heal her grandmother, and by the end of the day she will be discharged from the hospital. This is happening so that she will have the opportunity to know Me.” Without hesitation I send her a message repeating these words.

Throughout the day I anxiously kept checking my phone hoping to hear any news, but there wasn’t.  So toward the end of the day, I finally send a message to the owner about class tomorrow. He messages me back that class is on and Fa’s grandmother is better.

The next day in class I ask her how her grandmother is. She says that yesterday afternoon, everything that I said in my message to her came true. Her grandmother was having paralysis, but by the afternoon she was feeling much better and discharged. Immediately the Gospel came flowing out of my heart to her. We spend the next 2 hours talking about Jesus and Buddhism. Since starting school here, every single day has presented opportunities to demonstrate and proclaim the love of Jesus to my classmates and to my teacher. Old wounds are being healed. Lies are being exposed and replaced with truth. The name of Jesus is being redeemed and restored. As these relationships continue to grow, the love of Jesus is invading this place. Opportunities are opening up into Fa’s family to potentially plant a house church in a village that is completely unreached with the Good News about Jesus.

Westerners from different nations, who have grown up in church, have run to the other side of the world to get away from the hypocrisy of a misrepresented church. Here, of all places, they are encountering Jesus in a Buddhist nation. The kingdom of God is at hand in this place! We are still believing for millions of people to come to Jesus in the next 4 years.

In Thailand, one thing that I have discovered is that most Thai people cannot separate being Buddhist and being Thai. The irony is that none of the Buddhist people here, that I know, practice what Buddha taught. He said not to worship anything. They worship everything. He said not to kill anything. This country is famous for it’s meals full of meat. He said not to drink alcohol. This country has one of the highest fatality rates due to alcohol poisoning. There is a complete separation between the religion of Buddhism and real life. We don’t need more religion, we need the love of Jesus.

This place has proven to be nearly impenetrable for the Gospel. They call it the missionary’s graveyard. Spiritual oppression and demonic powers have been governing this place for thousands of years. We refuse to accept this. We are believing that Khon Kaen is becoming the Jerusalem of Asia, a city of Christ followers going to the ends of the earth, proclaiming the Good News to the lost sheep. Jesus is establishing His church here and they are going to be His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). We believe that the Isaan people will not be known as Buddhist, but as radical lovers of Jesus. Without your support, none of this would be possible. Thank you for your prayers for us and the Isaan people. God is worthy of any sacrifice that any of us could ever make to advance His kingdom.